petition for the MVD: 12/17/2018

Residents and businesses in Merrimack are paying for bottled water and private filtration systems because our public water supply contains PFAS chemicals that we do not want to ingest, inhale or have absorbed through our skin. Merrimack Citizens have had past and have ongoing PFAS exposure as a NH DES and EPA designated contamination area. PFAS chemicals are recognized as carcinogens and federal toxicity reports show multiple threats to human health. PFAS chemicals are bioaccumulative thus cannot decrease in your blood serum and organs until exposure ends. Due to the actions of polluters, our public water supply is exposing us to levels that are above the federal agency ATSDR’s recommended risk level . Sadly, PFAS as a class are referred to as “forever chemicals” because they do not breakdown in the environment and will persist in exposing our community to harm for decades. Filtering our public water wells is one measure that can be taken to protect public health and is more cost effective than the current expenses endured by our residents. We learned of this contamination almost 3 years ago and it is time to take direct action as we can see from recent NH DES data reports the problem is compounding.

Petition Presented & Denied

The following petition was presented to Saint Gobain on April 27, 2018, and denied:

3,800 children attend the Merrimack public schools which have tested positive for the presence of the chemical PFOA. The school board has reviewed research about the impact of this chemical on children and have unanimously concluded that water supplies that children receive drinking and cooking water from should be filtered as a protective and precautionary measure. Ongoing independent water test results have varied in each of the 6 schools with a high of 45 ppt noted. The school board has met with consultants to choose a design that is the most fiscally responsible and has concluded that $128,590 is necessary to fund a water filtration system for all 6 public schools. The school board has recently voted to add this to the proposed annual budget which will be considered this March at the town wide deliberative session. It is the belief of tax payers of Merrimack that this should not be a cost to us but should be paid by the corporation that enjoys the residency of our town and has steadily utilized PFOA in past production for more than a decade.